Evergrande Group sells a stake in Shengjing Bank for $1.5 billion
Wall Street stocks suffered solid losses overnight amid another surge in US Treasury yields. The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 1.56%, its highest level since late June. The sentiment deteriorated after the Fed’s Powell reiterated that the central bank was ready to start tapering soon. On the data front, U.S. consumer confidence declined for the third straight month in September. Against this backdrop, the S&P 500 plunged 2.04% to see its steepest drop since May. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 2.83% while the Dow Jones lost 1.6%.
Asian stocks were mostly lower on Wednesday. Bucking the trend, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.58% after Evergrande Group said it was selling a stake in Shengjing Bank for $1.5 billion. Evergrande’s Hong Kong-traded shares jumped over 12% on the announcement. Meanwhile, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 sank 2.12%, the Kospi in Seoul dropped 1.22% and the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.83%.
In Europe, equities steadied today after a steep sell-off, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index rising 0.8% in early trade. Later today, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, and the Bank of England’s Governor Andrew Bailey will speak at a forum.
In currencies, the dollar extended gains to fresh highs on Wednesday, with the USD index approaching the 94.00 figure during the European hours. As such, EURUSD slipped to early-November lows in the 1.1655 area against the backdrop of the hawkish message from Chief Powell. The next support zone is expected at 1.1630.
Meanwhile, Brent crude keeps retreating from three-year highs registered just below the $80 handle on Tuesday. The futures corrected lower to the $76.75 area before bouncing marginally in recent trading. The market focus now shifts to the EIA weekly report after the data by API showed that US crude oil stockpiles increased by 4 million barrels last week.
